


Fuzzy Feelings

by shyfoxes (orphan_account)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crying, Fix-It, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Homesickness, Hopeful Ending, Lance & the Red Lion, Self Confidence Issues, red lion - Freeform, vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 21:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15252291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/shyfoxes
Summary: Keith’s alien wolf-thing won't leave Lance alone.





	Fuzzy Feelings

Something was scratching Red’s hatch.

At first Lance had thought maybe it was a bit of debris flying around outside his lion. The planet they’d landed on was overflowing with evergreen, thick and tall, almost, in some cases, enough to block out this system’s sun. Still, if one stood in the right spot, maybe even on top of a giant Red Lion, small as he may be, one could see the twin moons rising on the horizon some nights.

Not tonight, though.

Tonight met Lance in his little bunk in Red’s cockpit. He hadn't even known there _were_ beds. He'd come stumbling in, emotions flooding him, barely held back at his rapid blinking, before Red had popped out a bed and tripped Lance mid-step with it. Lance had face planted. Been met with the surprising softness of the bunk’s mattress, and melted right in. Curling face down against it, Lance hiked his jacket over his head and cried.

At some point, Lance had soaked his sheets through with his tears, cheek pressed against the wet patch. He made no move to wipe his face, despite the grimace of how gross his face would be later. Under the flimsy cover of  Bending himself inward, Lance brought his knees up, nearly touching his chest under the flimsy covering over his jacket. Lance wasn't cold, but he yearned for the feel of fingers in his hair, or a warm body at his back.

He burrowed deeper and tried to imagine Veronica’s octopus arms snaking around his middle, hauling him against her chest as she yelled for Marco to descend and tickle Lance. Luis over his legs keeping him from fighting back, egging Marco on. Without the castleship there was no wormhole jumping.

They were finally going home, but the time it would take, from the other edge of the galaxy, would their even still be an Earth to go home to when they got there?

Lance didn't let himself dwell on it long. It was too heavy a thought, too much too soon. His whole body already felt like too much, sinking into the mattress like an anchor, falling through the ocean unable to find the bottom where a cushion of sand could finally catch him. 

The scratching started up again, louder and more incessant.

Lance merely thought it a strange animal from the planet they'd landed on had gotten lost. Why Red wasn't trying to scare it away - finicky about his space as Lance had come to learn - Lance didn't know. He buried himself deeper, trying to ignore it. It only got louder.

“Can't a guy have a melt down in peace?” Lance muttered.

Reluctantly getting to his feet, he stomped over to the opening hatch fully intending to give whatever creature a piece of his mind. He flung it open and - saw nothing. At all. Empty air, the quiet noise of space crickets. Lance felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and ground his teeth together to not try and let them chatter. He looked left, right, held his breath and still nothing.

Red would have alerted him to danger, wouldn't he? They had gotten close, still a ways to go, but the lion definitely didn't want him to like he surprised mauled, right? Could the lions sense ghosts, was that a thing they could protect against? With all the magical weirdness of quintessence there was no way this too couldn't be possible.

Wasting no time, Lance shut the hatch, scurrying back to his bunk and tripping right over something.

Lance shrieked, body rolling away instantly, Bayard materializing in his hand.

“Don't try it, demon!” He cried, positioning his gun.

Only, it was just Keith’s space wolf sitting there casually like she hadn't just broke in and entered and made Lance have an entire crisis. Lance threw his bayard aside, trying to still hos breathing. The wolf cocked her head to the side, idly wagging her tail.

“Holy crow, please, don't do that,” Lance breathed  laying a hand to his heart. “What in the world are you doing here?”

Predictably, she didn't answer, tongue lolling as he regarded him. He frowned, waiting for some divine reason to explain to him why Keith’s dog was trying to scare him.

“Did Keith put you up to this?” Lance whispered loudly. “Is there a camera somewhere in all that fluff?”

The wolf only extended a paw, clawing at air for a moment.

Lance blinked. “I don't know what that means.”

Hugging himself, Lance sighed from where he'd boxed himself in against the corridor to the cockpit. He and the wolf watched each other, the other's eyes gold eyes. When Lance shifted, her eyes followed him.

“Look, maybe you're confused but _Keith_ ,” She perked up at the name, tail wagging. “Yeah, you know, Keith, your...boy? He’s not _here_. Red’s mine.” Lance swallowed, looking away. “For now. I think.”

Lance shook his head, hoping those thoughts would fly away with the motion, instead of lodging at the back of his brain.

“So, you should just go ahead and - and whoosh somewhere else. This is a no mullet zone. You're kind of interrupting my wallowing.”

When she made no move to leave, looking far too much like she understood, Lance let out an exasperated sigh.

“Come on, now. Shoo!”

“Do you even have a name? Go on, uhm, uhh...Nova? Get out of here!”

She pawed at the ground when he called her Nova, body vibrating excitedly. If she wasn't blue and kind of obviously spacey, Lance would think she was a regular Earth dog. Lance thunked his head back against a wall.

“Fine! Do what you want, but I'm going back to bed,” He said in defeat, hands flying in flourish as he stood up. He cracked his back and made a show of going around her. “If you can invite yourself in, you can see yourself out!”

One, two steps was all it took before Lance was pitching forward into the bunk, face hitting the mattress. His whole body sagged, becoming one with the bunk, brain like static.

Where had he been before he was interrupted? Right, homesick.

Something like a _ching!_ sounded in from the corridor, pinging at Lance’s ears. He didn't pay it much mind until a whole furry weight dumped itself on his back. _“Oof!”_ He groaned. He struggled to twist his head, already kind of knowing what he was going to see. When he could finally pry his face from the mattress, there was Nova laying casually across his back like she'd been there all along. Her doggy elbows bored into his back. He wiggled trying to throw her off, only for her to drop her weight more and move with his motions. She lolled her tongue, almost like a laugh.

Lance grit his teeth. “Oh, sure, yuck it up, why dontcha? Not like I was in the middle of doing something. Did Keith not teach you any manners? I swear.”

“Please, _baby girl_ , you can't seriously still be here. I don't even have any snacks for you right now. Kaltenecker is outside. Kaltenecker...oh my god, you didn't _eat_ her did you?” Nova’s gaze had a devilish little glint. Lance whipped himself around, flying onto his back. Nova adjusted, paws resting along his chest, and crushing his stomach with her weight. “Did you?”

“That cow better still be alive and in one piece if I go out there!” Lance exclaimed.

Nova just wagged her tail. Great, another thing that enjoyed Lance making a fool of himself. As if the mice weren't enough. He let his head fall back to the bed. Every time he tried to go out of body, Nova shifted, making him aware of himself, staying present. It was irksome in and of itself.

“Listen, I get that maybe everyone's busy but you can't just invite yourself in here. I'm trying to - to. I don't know. I'm not really in a good place right now. I kind of feel like I got run over by a stampede of cows. You trying to crush my lungs isn't really helping.” Nova didn't look like she would be budging, paws crossed over each other on his chest. Lance sighed.

Lance eyed her critically. “Nothing said within this lion is allowed to leave this lion, got it?”

Nova blinked at it.

“You have to swear!” He held up a hand and Nova mirrored him doing the same. “Cool, awesome.”

Lance bit his lip. “I'm not feeling so good, you know. Kind of feel like...I don't belong. I don't really have a - a specialty and I'm not really feeling like I...fit in, right now. Its no one’s fault, really, but I just. I just feel like I'm not good enough."

“And frankly, I'm pretty great! Not to be like, egotistical. I did some pretty great stuff.” He frowned. “Like, maybe I'm not like a tech genius or hotwire alien tech,  or power up a castleship or find a space wolf or, or, uhm.” Lance pressed his palms to his eyes and tried to force the tears back in. “I'm not like, _terrible,_ you know. I can do things. But maybe none of them are...that great. Not like everyone else.”

Lance took Nova’s face in his hands, ruffling her fur as he tried to swallow the bitterness attaching itself to his tongue.

“I don't know why I'm here,” Lance admitted softly. It made his chest ache, his mind and body capsizing as the words left his mouth, like he'd given away the keys to his safe buried inside of him. Maybe he had.

“What am I doing here?”

Nova exhaled loudly through her nose. She fixed him with a look that he couldn't discern. She looked up around her, regarding Red’s cockpit, the bits and pieces of what he’d kept in his room, the holophoto of the team shortly before things had gone to heck when the Galra had taken Allura. She tapped a paw on his chest, over his heart.

Lance snorted. “What's that mean?”

She tapped again and again, nosing at him before settling her head down. Her tail gave a shaggy couple wiggles as she curled over him, warm and loving. Around him, Red hummed, bathing the cockpit in a comforting warmth, like a summer breeze on the beach, the sun behind the clouds and the water at his back. Lance could feel that warmth bloom in his chest, spread throughout him like an overflowing well.

Lance closed his eyes.

He could see Shiro’s face, his arm flung over his shoulders, a hand resting at the back of his head. He was smiling, praising Lance for sniping the enemy robot that had nearly blindsided him from behind. The back of his head bloomed with a pleasant warmth.

He could see Hunk gripping his hands, smile wobbly and face wet, murmuring under his breath. Lance had been there for the fallout of his anxiety. His hands tingled.

Then there was Pidge, face pressed to his stomach, little arms around his torso as she hugged him, refusing to peek up, so Lance could do nothing but hug her back tight.

There was Keith, tired and frustrated, leaning quietly in an abandoned hallway, curling into himself, curling into….Lance. Sharing the burden of failure and the fear and longing of hope.

Coran, whose hand was nestled on his shoulder, mustache upticked in a smile, and the star map blaring bright.

Then there was Allura. Curled up in a hug against his chest, her face tucked into his neck, sharing a few tears between the two of them.

 And Red. There was Red, an angry squishfaced little thing, swishing his tail. He was curled up in Lance's lap, gold eyes tilted towards him, a contented feeling spread throughout him, bleeding through the places where they connected, Lion to boy. 

 _Mine,_ The lion said.

Lance’s whole body erupted in a flurry of feelings, almost too great, too excited under his skin. He squeezed his eyes shut, leaning into Red’s purrs each feeling like a smile. Above him, Nova tapped at him again.

“Oh.” He exhaled, smiling wetly around his tears. Salty along his cheeks, like ocean water. “Oh.”

He curled himself around Nova, trapping her in a hug. She didn't wiggle away, content to thump her tail and drink in the affection.

“Thank you, baby girl, I needed that.” Lance touched the wall of his cockpit. “You, too, Red, thanks.”

Lance wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

Somewhere in the mess of his bed, his space phone went off. Barely prying away from Nova, he dug into the sheets until his hand knocked the case. Squinting, he looked at the screen.

_Hunk: I found a beach. You wanna come swim w me for a bit?_

Lance didn't hesitate to reply.

_Heck yeah._

**Author's Note:**

> hc: lance refers to animals as baby girl/boy
> 
>  


End file.
